A fun-loving CEO prankster, who sent his identical twin brother to important magazine photo-shoot, gets lambasted in print after the editor uncovered his ruse.
Maybe the staff at the Baltimore Business Journal should have paid more attention to Mike Brenner’s self-written description as an ‘identical twin who still enjoys the occasional prank’. Because if they had they may have realised sooner they were on the receiving end of one of those occasional pranks.
Brenner had been selected by the magazine as one to watch in its annual 40 Under 40 feature, but when he was too busy to attend the required photo-shoot for the article he decide to send his identical twin brother instead.
The deception, however, didn’t come to light until after publication – much to the irritation of the journal’s editor-in-chief, Joanna Sullivan. The editor was so enraged by the prank she ran an expose of the situation, revealing that she had called Brenner to tell him exactly what she thought and revoked his invitation to the magazines 40 Under 40 bash. His brother however, was welcome to attend.
“I’m just a stick-in-the-mud newspaper editor who still worries about our readers getting the correct information. The BBJ’s credibility is everything. When we make a mistake, we correct it. And in this case, a mere correction wasn’t enough,” wrote Sullivan.
Brenner sent Sullivan an apology and posted on his Facebook page that it was intended to be ‘good fun’ and ‘harmless’ but accepted he has upset the publication and apologised to anyone who was offended.
The prankster is also trying to get his invite reinstated and has been urging his friends to leave comments on the original article to help his case.
More than 170 comments, of the majority of which are in support of Brenner, have been posted but there is no word on whether he will make the guest list.
